This Day In Texas History - February 18

[joe817]

1685 - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and thus formed the basis for France's claim to Texas. Robert de La Salle built the frontier fort near what is currently Inez, Texas. It was a small unit, consisting of one wooden house made from ship wood, a few small huts and a wooden fence. French cannons buried by the Spanish, as well as Spanish-dug graves for the killed French settlers, were discovered in the 1990s.

1823 - Shortly after winning it's independence from Spain, Mexico, under it's new emperor, authorized Stephen Austin to "organize the colonists into a body of the national militia, to preserve tranquility." The militia helped to repel Indian raids to the early settlements, and the militia only remained together until the emergency was over. Still, this was the first organized military force of Anglos in Texas.

1837 - Augustus C. Allen(early settler and founder of Houston) signed a contract with Thomas William (Peg Leg) Ward(general contractor), to build the Texas capitol in Houston. Despite missing the initial deadline due to material delays, Ward completed the building in time for the Second Session of the First Congress to meet in it.

1839 - The battle of Brushy Creek, between Texas Ranger and militia units and Comanche marauders, occurred a few miles from the site of present Taylor in Williamson County. It was a running affair along Battleground (present Cottonwood) and Boggy creeks and culminated north of Brushy Creek.

1875 - In Mason county a lynch mob strings up 2 cattle rustlers and shoots another before the Texas Rangers show up. At least 18 were killed in this blood feud lasting more than a year.

1899 - The citizens of Amarillo voted to incorporate and elected Warren W. Wetzel mayor. However, the inauguration of city government was restrained by injunctions, and municipal administration was carried on by county officials and Texas Rangers for a while. The first annual Tri-State Fair was held in Amarillo in the fall of 1899. Amarillo, commercial center of the Texas Panhandle, is in southern Potter County and extends into Randall County.

1910 - A Frenchman, Louis Paulhan, made the first recorded airplane flight in Texas. Aerial demonstrations proliferated at sites across America, including Houston, where Paulhan made his flight. Military aviation developed at the same time. Lt. Benjamin Foulois, a colorful pioneer pilot, arrived at Fort Sam Houston in February 1910, assembled the army's recently purchased Wright biplane, and took to the air on March 2, 1910. Almost a hundred years later, Texas continues to be a leader in civil and military aviation.

1943 - Harlon Henry Block, born in Yorktown, Texas, entered the marines in San Antonio. After parachute training he was assigned to the First Marine Parachute Regiment. As a member of this unit he experienced his first combat duty during the Bougainville campaign. He subsequently appeared in one of the most famous battle photographs ever taken: the raising of the flag atop Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. Corporal Block helped with the second flag by stooping and guiding the base of the pole into the volcanic ash while the other five men heaved the flag upward. As the flag rose Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal snapped the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph. Corporal Block, however, never saw the famous picture. He was killed in action on March 1, 1945, when his unit advanced in the direction of Nishi Ridge.

1943 - Dolly Shea graduated with the first flight-nurse class of the United States Army Air Forces at Bowman Field, Kentucky. The San Benito, Texas, native served in the European Theater during World War II. She was killed on April 14, 1945, when her evacuation plane, ferrying wounded Americans to hospitals behind the front line, was shot down over Germany. She was one of three women in the Army Nurse Corps known to have been killed by direct enemy action and the only one from Texas. Her awards include the Air Medal, the Red Cross Medal, a Special Citation from President Harry Truman, and a posthumous Purple Heart.